Only with cake/pie

After 15 years working in a high paid job, I left the UK only having used the NHS once, then had to be privately insured here... Can I have a refund please!

That isn't the point. Everybody contributes for the common good.


I think you missed Rusty's point totally. Success is not about money, those that look at money and possessions are missing the point of life and true success and happiness. Money is a neccessary, abstract evil. As long as I can earn enough to pay my bills each month, I'm more worried about having a job that is fun and fulfilling and making a positive influence on other's lives. The second example is a better one.


You see.

I agree great post Rusty even if it was off topic lol.

Was it though?

IME, most of us are subjected to a peer-pressure that expects us to progress along a certain path. If you're single, you're asked, "When are you going to get a girlfriend?" When you get a girlfriend, you're asked, "When are you going to get married?" And soon after your wedding day you're asked, "So when are you going to have kids then?"

The upshot of this is the clammer to be a parent. Go to any upmarket shopping centre on a Saturday and you'll see vast armies of tired, unstable, soon-to-be-divorced, so-called parents shouting and chasing after even greater hordes of unruly, badly brought up, disrespectful, spoiled, selfish little c*nts.

And why? Because our entire social structure (like so many societies before it) is built upon drudgery, unhappiness, ladder-climbing and, above all other things, conformity. We live in a time where children have turned from a blessing to a status symbol, a fashion accessory, a bit of bling. Having children is one of the markers of success in our so-called society; those who choose or are unable to have them are judged to be failures. How can you be seen to be properly middle-class if you have no children to put through university? Nobody's really very happy and those that are unhappiest are those couples that were told they had to have kids to be happy and then found out it wasn't true.

Given how many children there are that need adopting or fostering, how many cancer patients can't have the drug they need, and how many dentists we don't have, I find it slightly objectionable that IVF is on the NHS. These people that 'need' IVF do so, at least in part IMO, because that's what society tells them to do. But there's a bigger point here that people really need to learn:

If you're not happy without children, you won't be happy with them.

Children are not a panacea to a crap life and nor are they therapeutic. They're bloody hard work, expensive, environmentally unfriendly and, if you're not suited to being a parent, they'll make your life a living hell.

So no I don't think IVF should be on the NHS. Maybe not being able to have children is the Universe's way of telling you not to have children.

Yes

Measuring success post Vs "Egg and sperm donors could get up to £800 in payments"

So helping a couple who are suited to being parents and will be good parents (I presume they don't let you just have IVF, there is some validation process first) and will enjoy being parents isn't good? And helping a crippled elderly person vegetate and become scared of their family is a good thing?

Rusty, your post seems to allude that everything most of us do is pushed by societies view of success and peer-pressure, in which case how can we suddenly turn round and be selective of what is right and what is wrong?
I object to people having children when the person is clearly not capable of looking after themselves and managing their own relationship, but if it's a loving couple who want children then I say them them have children, if they are sensible they will have one or two, not nine or ten.

Yes, children bring a lot of work, and I don't know the relationship between you and your parents, but not once have my parents turned round to me and said that I was a bad idea, an overall disappointment, or how I've been a burden only about how I have strived to make them proud, thus overall I hope I have brought them happiness.

Also just to clarify a couple of points that came up in reponse to what I asked:-



I understand you do not belive you are entitled to have a child - or sex . The context of what I was saying though was not that you are entitled to have a child, but - given that you contribute to a system that some others only simply take from - you are entitled to take something from it. Actually everyone is entitled to make use of the NHS so what I'm actually elluding to more is the fact that some would feel more justified given that they pay into that system.



Or... my brother does nothing, pays nothing, contributes nothing, etc etc and gets birthday presents. I do everything asked of me. Should I also be entitled to a birthday present? I dont think that's childish at all.

If I'm honest I found the last post to be nothing more than a rant and selective quoting like this: highlights it. From what was a decent read in the first post (IMO) turned to be an ugly rant.

They might feel justified but that doesn't make them justified.

The NHS is there so that you can use it if you need to. But to use it without any real clinical need just seems a little selfish to me.


But you shouldn't be entitled to a present when it isn't your birthday. (What a crap metaphor! I really wish I hadn't chosen it now )

My point, poorly elucidated though it was, was that the NHS is a safety net. It is there to keep us in good health and to save us when we are in poor health. If someone uses the doctor more than me I don't moan that I should get to see the doctor more - I celebrate the fact that I don't need a doctor.

I do however take your point that there are a lot of wasters using the system. This does upset me quite a lot but I've come to realise that whatever system you have you will inevitably have freeloaders in it.


I think you're quite right.

It was a crap post and I am really rather embarrassed. Apologies

The Lesson: Never post after not enough sleep and a "domestic".

(Boy am I glad we don't have rep now )

I thought that was a little too negative for you Rusty I'm sitting here listening to radiohead songs and I don't even feel that depressed

Actually Radiohead cheers me up but that's by the by.

Just how depressed do you have to be if Radiohead lightens your mood

I'm the same listening to the Smiths and lots of people find them depressing.